Philosophical Switch for the Third Wave of Psychology in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

The epistemological goal of indigenous psychology is to construct a series of culture-inclusive theories to represent the universal structure of human minds on one hand, and to account for people's specific mentalities in a particular indigenous culture on the other hand. In order to attain this goal, three levels of breakthrough must be made for the sustainable progress of indigenous psychology: philosophical reflection, theoretical construction, and empirical research. In my book, Foundations of Chinese Psychology: Confucian Social Relations, I explained how I constructed the "Face and Favor" model, which may reflect the deep structure of universal human mind in interpersonal relationships. Then I used it as a framework to analyze the inner structure of Confucianism, which might enable us to understand the specific mentality of people living in Confucian society. The attributes of Confucian ethics were analyzed from the perspective of modern ethics, and a series of culture-inclusive theories were constructed on the presumption of relationalism to integrate findings of previous empirical researches on social exchange, achievement motivation, face dynamism, quanxi and organizational behaviors, and strategies of conflict resolution in Confucian society. Through the efforts of this book, it is expected that we may not only achieve the epistemological goal of indigenous psychology, but also establish the research tradition of Confucian relationalism in social psychology. I applied the approach of multiple philosophical paradigms to overcome the problematic situation left by Wundt, and utilized critical realism to explain the philosophical switch for the third wave of psychology.